Dry-Aged Christmas Roast (pic heavy)

stike · December 2008

I found a decent three-rib bone-in choice rib roast and dry-aged it for 5 days in my spare fridge. Last time i aged, the temp was off, and I had to chuck the roast. This time it was P-E-R-F-E-C-T. Lucked out. I checked on it every day, so I wasn't flying blind.

Here's the roast prepped and ready to go. I had them cut the vertebrae off, but not carve off the ribs. Salt, pepper, and rosemary from the garden (I brought it inside in a pot for the winter). Sage is for the pan sauce....

A bit closer. Notice how the fat is waxy, and the meat itself is dry and very firm. I might try going a week next time, then two, then maybe three. We'll see.

Here it is on the BGE. 200 for about 5.5 hours til 118 internal. then jacked temps to 550 and put her back on for about 15 minutes. Those are unpeeled beets in the roasting pan. check the roasting pan. offset handles help it fit in the egg.

here it is resting...

We served it with squash, roasted potatoes, and the beets (you need to try roasted fresh beets).

My mom had to fly back last night from florida for the funeral of a childhood friend in our town. Very sad. She's staying with us, and we served the Christmas roast leftovers. my mom joked that it's always nice to have dinner with us even when it is "thrown together from leftovers". I fried some potatoes in duck fat (see the 'duck' post following), with salt, pepper, yada, yada, yada. Reheated the roast in a cast-iron pan, seared the cut sides a bit and kept the center cold. Here it is resting and carved. Even better. just a hint of smoke.

all in all, I'll allow that the aging had a pretty marked effect. The outside of the roast was missing the nice thin layer of fat, so i wouldn't age this much longer than i did. but the exposed meat had that great added flavors of the aged beef i was hoping for. The roast was firm and dense, but cut like butter and had a great texture from breaking down over a few days. not as pronounced as the 45 day stuff we are lucky enough to have around here occasionally, but absolutely worth the minor effort of aging.

BENTE · December 2008

i have always wanted to dry age some beef but i can't keep the other people out of the fridge and would run into temp problems.. but i will get to it when the kids get older...

yours look great!!! i proabably will not try the beets just not my thing but hey i will send some karma your way for thinking up something diffrent

and lastly what's the story with the offset handles?

where did you find such a thing?

Clay Q · December 2008

Looks great! I'd like to learn more about aging meat and how to do it at home. Seems a bit tricky.
Duck fat potatoes....now there is something special. Too bad I dumped my duck fat. :(

Fidel · December 2008

Nice deep red color on that roast. I'll presume that was a result of the aging.

When you say perfect, what temp is that....38*?

How did you serve the beets? Sliced or diced? I've had them both ways and I'll agree that roasted beets a re a nice complement to the beef. I've even had them served chilled with a nice steak and was impressed with the flavor profile.

Excellent meal stike.

EGC · December 2008

Could you notice much of a difference in flavor on the interior slices? Nice looking meal!

stike · December 2008

if you put the roast down low in the back of your fridge, you shouldn't experience any trouble with temps. it won't ever get exposed to any food-safety temp issues just due to normal opening and closing of the door. if your milk and everything else is safe, the meat will be safe too.

my wife bought that set when she worked at a now-defunct store about 20 years ago, during college. the store manager told her "hey, i'm going to be marking down a set of these pots and pans, you might want to get in on them, only three sets left". she got a full set of Chantal pots and pans for i think a hundred bucks. The guy also told her about an onkyo rack system that was getting marked down, and she bought me that for christmas. the store manager got fired eventually. seemed if he saw something he wanted, he'd mark it down. he also marked down a couple extras to cover it up. oooops

we don't buy sets of things as a rule, but this was too good to pass up. dunno if they still make the pan. we have a large (turkey size) and a smaller one.

looks like it was discontinued
http://www.amazon.com/Chantal-Enamel-11-Quart-Roaster-Broiler/dp/B00004UF8H

stike · December 2008

THOU SHALT NOT DISCARD THINE DUCK FAT.

thassa major sin in the kitchen!

aging isn't tricky. just need to know what to lookfor. buy a dry-aged steak first, otherwise you may get skittish if you do it yourself (even if you end up doing it correctly)

stike · December 2008

it starts bright red and gets ruby red then brown the longer it ages.

i try to aim for 34 in the fridge. crank it up to max cool (which is why the spare fridge is good, so other stuff won't freeze).

as for the beets, by the time we ate, we were all half in the wrapper, and i'd forgotten to peel them. the skins slide right off. i did cut them in half, and everyone just peeled and ate the like that. rubbed them with olive oil to help them roast. they didn't really do much in five hours at 200. kept them roasting indirect at 500 while the roast itself rested, after also cutting them in half. usually only take an hour at 400

these beets were big. too big, frankly. slightly nicer flavor to the smaller ones. still great though. nothing like canned

stike · December 2008

it cooks better, having less water, and the meat itself on the interior is softer. there are natural enzymes which break down the muscle and literaly tenderize it. not a huge difference at 5 days, but you certainly see it at 45 days.

the exterior naturally benefits most from the drying (the fat condenses), but the whole cut will tenderize and develop subtle extra flavors.

i could taste a difference, but probably because i've had enough to know what to look for. my wife and mother just simply remarked how good it tasted

water is flavorless, so at the very least, removing 20% of the water will have a big benefit

FlaPoolman · December 2008

Man that looks good. Did you use the same method you Emaied last month? I still have that saved.

stike · December 2008

yeah.

easy as pie. best part of the procedure (which i didn't include in the email) was that to test temps, you take a beer from the fridge and test the temp with the thermapen. then drink the beer.

i test every ten minutes

Eggtucky · December 2008

Looks great Stike! Try wrapping it in cheese cloth and in the fridge..change cheesecloth daily and leave for 8 days...I've had 8 day aged and 21 day aged and couldnt really tell much difference for the extra time

Big'un · December 2008

Great pictorial Stike. Si if some one were looking for a roast to age, what attributes should I look for when purchasing the meat? Thanks, I'm still awaiting my invite for dinner.

Desert Oasis Woman · December 2008

this dry-aging looks very appealing, think will try it when the fridge gets cleared out a bit (

hazard of all eggers or just us newbies?).
:huh:
Have biggie p.r.; is currently frozen: if we let it thaw open on a rack with drip pan in the fridge, when would the ageing process begin?

If we trimmed off some cap (when partially defrosted), let it age maybe 4-5 days, when should we apply the 30 cloves roasted garlic, 1/3 c fresh horseradish, 1/4 c EVOO ,S&P rub and how long should it sit??? in conjunction with the aging process???

Recipe has rub on overnight wrapped in plastic
:S that would then turn it into a wet aging? or just a wet rub???

Recipe: Garlic-Crusted Prime Rib(p.87) Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine Mike Micallef (2009) [yep, hot off the press). visit www.reata.net [on inside front cover)

RRP · December 2008

I assume the use and daily change of cheese cloth is to wick away any moisture in the meat which may surface. Right?

stike · December 2008

no cheese cloth, man. that's BAD VOODOO. an internet myth.

funny thing about AB is he shows how to dry-age and does NOT do the towels, but doesn't say why other than "not to". in his on-line write up, whoever transcribed it added the 'towel' part to his method.

there are some misconceptions about the use of towels. when sides of beef were hung (not primals, but whole sides) to be aged (actually, not aging on purpose so much as simply storing a long time), "shrouds" were used to help keep dust and mold off the meat. mold isn't bad, just easier to keep clean with shrouds on the side of beef.

fast forward to the internet age, and home aging revivalists started advising the use of towels to wick moisture to the surface, based on the use of shrouds. the towels don't bring just water to the surface, but also water soluble proteins (the red is not blood). that's not good. evaporation (without towels) is the only way to get ONLY water out of the beef. the towels can also encourage bacterial growth, by providing a thick wet environment. since the bacteria are only on the surface of the meat anyway, adding a damp towel gives them a place to potentially thrive. you want a pellicle to form (hard outer skin). the towels keep the surface of the meat wet. bad for the fat, encourages bacteria, and it's frankly a pain in the ass to change them. hahaha

no companies that provide seriously dry-aged beef (say 21 days plus) use towels or cloths. cold, 55% humid air is the single best thing for the beef.

i haven't noticed much difference between 14 and 21 days (from commercially aged beef). i think for home aging, you can get an immediate benefit in a few days, versus purely un-aged beef. after that, it maybe becomes apparent at 21 days, and then again at 45 days. i think i'm going to try a week, then 14 days, then 21 days, etc. just to see for myself

Fidel · December 2008

Did you catch this post?

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=564900&catid=1#

No cheesecloth there.

stike · December 2008

i bought that three bone roast for my wife and I, my 8 year old, and for my six year old to stare at while he ate chicken ( :( ). my wife found out my brother and sister in-law wanted to come down and I wigged, thinking it wouldn't be enough. well, i fed four adults Christmas day then three adults on the leftovers last night, and still have a slice plus the ribs left over.

more than enough. though i dunno if it would have been enough for you to join us!

best thing to age is a whole primal. cut ends aren't good to be exposed for serious (21 day) lengths of time. you want prime if you can get it, because it will benefit most (fat is good). prime will also (should) have a nice thin layer of fat all around. the fat is a protective layer. you aren't trying to dry out or dehydrate the meat surface. the environment should be as cold as you can get in a fridge, even 32 to 34 if possible. but well below 40. max of 36-38 consistently. if you can, 55% relative humidity is best too. allows drying at a decent rate to allow aging to occur too. if it were really dry, you would dry out before developing as much flavor. still, i don't go more than a week with my home grown stuff, and i can't fuss over 55% humidity for that short an aging process. if i were goign sixe or seven weeks, maybe!

stike · December 2008

yeah, i did. way too risky to use towels in an environment like that. think about how much of a pain in the butt that'd be, too. changing alnd laundering all those towels, even cheesecloth.

the old linen shrouds were thin, and stayed put. they didn't change them. towels are just bad bad bad....

stike · December 2008

no moisture surfaces during the normal process. but adding towels will do it. thing is, you don't get just water, you get water plus anything it carries with it; enzymes, flavor, proteins..

you want some water soluble protein left (and moisture), because that's what salt will bring to the surface, and it's what caramelizes during a high-heat dry-roast

Big'un · December 2008

Thanks, except for the eating remark. :P How do you check the humidity?

stike · December 2008

don't cut off any fat cap (if that's what you mean). fat protects the meat, and fat will get very dense (flavor goes up, because here's much less water in the fat now).

dry aging starts the second the roast is sitting unwrapped in very cold air.

you could add the garlic/horseradish/etc. whenever you wanted, but i wouldn't let it sit back in the fridge again like that unless the recipe called for letting it sit.

Fidel · December 2008

With a hygrometer, silly.

Get a combo hygrometer/thermometer at Radio Shack for $10 0r less.

stike · December 2008

i didn't check the humidity... was only 5 days. the humidity allows you to go very very long (literally weeks) without over-drying the meat. flavors are developing completely independent of the drying process. and i guess at 55% they've found that the roast dries in parallel at the perfect rate that the flavor develops. no danger of me overdrying the meat in under a week.

i didn't mean you wouldn't have been able to join us because you'd eat so much, just that we literally have only one thin slice left. hahaha

Little Steven · December 2008

stike,

With your counsel, I went to 14 days a while ago. The outside took a dark, dry cosistency and the fat was very waxy. There was no odour to speak of except for a faint musty smell. Guests arrived late so I had to hold the cooked roast for over an hour but it was still really good.

Steve

stike · December 2008

yeah. no odo(u)r at all. if any, it would be a faintly funky, maybe 'metallic' hint. but i didn't develop anything nice like that in a 5-day stint.

first one i did, the fridge temp was (i later found out) about 41 degrees. that roast smelled 'off' and was slimy. tried hard to convince myself it was good, but the nose knows.

RRP · December 2008

I'm tempted to buy a piece of Choice that's on sale right now for $7.49 and give it a try. The only thing confusing me, Jeff, is you said you want to start with some already dry aged and not wet aged. I'm pretty sure this $7.49 is wet aged. What is the risk I run?

stike · December 2008

no... i wasn't clear.

i mean, before you dry age, you want to be sure to buy a piece that has already been dry aged and see if you like it in the first place. it will also give you the "ok, so THAT'S what it should look like" information. then go ahead and try your own

if you have had dry aged, then go ahead. that choice will be fine.

you don't run any risk dry aging something if it's already been wet aged, in fact, i think for the home ager, that's the BEST way to do it. wet aging will develop the same flavors from the enzymes (CWM ages all the time, just keep it in the cryovac). it just doesn't give up the water, and the fat doesn't condense.

i think you could wet age (which is easier for do-it-yer-selfers), then take it out and further dry age it if you really wanted to go 21 days or more without being DRY the whole time. say, two weeks or maybe three wet aged, then a further seven days dry.

for what it's worth, alton brown admits to tossing the cryovac'd beef into the fridge for 6 to 8 WEEKS.

yes, it is safe if temps are held.

i think you may be on to something!

Charleston Dave · December 2008

Beautiful cook, Stike!

Thanks for the glorious pictures and the cook details, very illuminating.

stike · December 2008

thanks, boss. i would think dry aging would be right up yer ally. if you can handle sous vide (and all its potential bacterial issues), you can certainly do this!

thanks again.

rxdawg · December 2008

Invested over 100 bucks on a 7 bone standing rib roast... did it in the oven over the egg because, well, because I was just afraid I'd screw it up.

Did anyway.

Followed several recipes to the "T", and by the time I checked the internal temp (an HOUR earlier than I expected to pull the whole thing) I was already north of 150.

Wanted to cry. I now know how to make beef jerky I think. So sad.

Yours looked great btw!

Dry-Aged Christmas Roast (pic heavy)

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